Herman Miller, Inc., introduces the Mirra chair, a product of more than four years of extensive research and development.
Mirra sets a new reference point for ergonomic comfort, performance, aesthetics, environmental sustainability and price in the office seating market.
Featured at NeoCon 2003, Mirra brings a host of innovations to the long-neglected mid-market category, which represents more than 50 percent of all work chairs sold.
Mirra combines passive and active adjustments to deliver natural performance and long-term comfort for a wide range of body types and postures.
Additionally, up to 96 percent of Mirra's materials can be recycled at the end of the chair's useful life.
The complete news story follows.
Herman Miller Introduces the Mirra Work Chair, Advanced Innovation for a Broader Market
Herman Miller, Inc., a global leader in office furnishings, workplace consulting, and related services, is introducing the Mirra chair following more than four years of extensive research and development. Mirra is an innovative, high-performing, environmentally advanced work chair that sets a new reference point for ergonomic comfort, performance, aesthetics, sustainability, and price in the office seating market.
Herman Miller, the company that introduced the world's first ergonomic office chair, the Ergon, in 1976, followed by Equa in 1984, and more recently the groundbreaking Aeron chair in 1994, now brings innovation to the long-neglected mid-price category. Mirra is poised to become the new high-performance leader in this price segment, which represents more than 50 percent of all work chairs sold.
"In terms of the science of seating, I have no qualms in stating that Mirra outperforms every competitor in our industry," said Don Goeman, vice president, Advance Development Group. "It has been rigorously grown through Herman Miller's solid research, design, and development processes. It has endured through challenge and change, and benefited from the same arduous iterations of learning, as have each of our previous great seating successes."
Available in June 2003, Mirra features the one-piece TriFlex backrest with built-in flex zones, and FlexFront, an adjustable flexing front edge seat that allows the sitter to control seat depth. The geometric shapes in Mirra's back, and the chair's suspended mesh seat, provide custom contouring and prevent heat build-up by allowing air to circulate around the upper torso, thighs, and buttocks. And in keeping with Herman Miller's environmental standards, up to 96 percent of Mirra's materials can be recycled at the end of the chair's useful life.
How Mirra Works
Mirra utilizes an innovative combination of both passive and active seating adjustments to deliver natural performance and long-term comfort for a wide range of body types and postures. Passive adjustments automatically respond to each user's body shape and movements to provide outstanding support; active adjustments give users the ability to fine-tune their sitting experience for even greater comfort.
Mirra's central spine construction supports its back while allowing for torsional flex and freedom of movement. The backrest's flex zones are calibrated to adjust to the sitter's height and shape automatically and provide proper support for the lower (sacral), mid (lumbar), and upper (thoracic) regions of the spine.
The chair's flexible back design is based in part on results uncovered by CAESAR (Civilian American European Surface Anthropometric Resource), an extensive international study of body shape and size. Research involved the laser scanning of several thousand subjects in different postures, and revealed a wide variance in back shape, particularly between women and men. Herman Miller, the only office furniture manufacturer involved in the Government/Industry-supported study, has used CAESAR's findings to create Mirra's exceptionally flexible and responsive backrest.
"Mirra is designed to accommodate 95 percent of the world's population. Mirra's great fit also is complemented by a finely balanced 'ride,' created by the Harmonic tilt mechanism that delivers a high level of comfort. And with its competitive pricing, Mirra's cutting-edge technology and comfort will be accessible to a broader range of users," says Keith McRobert, director of Seating.
"There is a science to the advancements of ergonomic work chair seating, and Mirra extends those advancements," Goeman explained. "The chair epitomizes what author Clayton Christensen refers to as a 'sustaining innovation,' in which you improve upon but reinforce the core attributes of the original dominant design. Simply stated, Mirra takes the innovations of our previous ergonomic seating to new levels."
Environmentally Sustainable Design
Like all new Herman Miller designs, Mirra was scrutinized from top to bottom to assure that its material chemistry, recyclability, manufacturability, packaging, and ease of disassembly are environmentally friendly. In fact, Mirra is the first chair designed from the ground-up to meet Herman Miller's stringent Design for the Environment (DfE) protocols, which focus on creating economic value while simultaneously valuing the environment.
Developed in collaboration with international environmental leaders McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC), these protocols help define Herman Miller's vision of sustainable capitalism--using benign, closed-loop materials and processes that protect and enhance the natural environment for future generations.
"Herman Miller's Mirra chair represents the most advanced and complete application of the Cradle-to-Cradle design protocols among any product manufacturer to date," said William McDonough, co-founder and principal, McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry. "The chair, and the company, confirms that great design and ecological and economic success are possible--today."
Mirra's Design Team, Studio 7.5 Berlin
The challenge Herman Miller presented to the designers of Studio 7.5 Berlin of Berlin, Germany, was to create a universal chair that would set new performance standards in fit, comfort, and aesthetics. The chair also had to advance Herman Miller's environmental sustainability objectives.
"We drafted a straightforward design brief describing a best-in-class mid-price chair," Goeman explained. "The 7.5 team responded in a manner I fully expected from my long affiliation with them. They could not be satisfied merely with best-in-class, but needed to push the envelope of problem-solving design."
The Studio 7.5 Berlin designers, who describe themselves as the design heirs of Charles and Ray Eames, have created a chair inspired by nature, both in its obvious simplicity and often-unseen intricacy. The Studio 7.5 team put Mirra through numerous iterations and prototypes until they, and their Herman Miller associates, were satisfied that the chair was the best that it could be. "Mirra looks very different from what we (first) thought, planned, and designed," said Burkhard Schmitz of Studio 7.5, "but the main idea, the intention, is fully there."
In Mirra--a playful reference to the way the chair mirrors the sitter's movement in all positions--users will find that Studio 7.5's dedication to perfection has produced a chair of ergonomic comfort, distinct identity and compelling character.
High Performance, Uncommon Value
Color options for Mirra presently include two finishes, ten seat and eight back colors. Plans call for regular updates to the chair's vocabulary to keep color options fresh.
"Mirra achieves the highest performance level among industry competitors, at a price-point below chairs whose performance it exceeds," Goeman said. "Lately at Herman Miller, we've come to call that phenomenon 'uncommon value' and made that our overriding objective. In that respect it's time for Mirra to move to the top of the class."
Herman Miller creates great places to work by researching, designing, manufacturing, and distributing innovative interior furnishings that support companies, organizations, and individuals all over the world. The company's award-winning products, complemented by furniture management and strategic consulting services, generated over $1.46 billion in revenue during fiscal 2002. Herman Miller is widely recognized for both its innovative products and business practices, including the use of industry-leading, customer-focused technology. Again in 2003 Herman Miller was named among "America's Most Admired" companies by Fortune magazine and included in Business Ethics magazine's "100 Best Corporate Citizens." The company trades on the NASDAQ stock market under the symbol MLHR. For additional information about the company, visit www.hermanmiller.com.
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